BACKGROUND
SAAB [Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget AB] was registered in Sweden on 2nd April 1937 and soon began to manufacture, under license, medium bombers at Trollhättan and light bombers and trainers at Linköping. These aircraft included Junkers 86Ks [Saab B3], Northrop 8As [Saab B5] and North American NA-16-4Ms [Saab Sk 14].

Before the outbreak of war Germany and Sweden co-operated with aircraft being built under license and exchanges of engine technology. When war broke out in September 1939 Sweden maintained its position of neutrality and remained contact with other countries including Germany, Britain and America. This contact did not stretch to divulging their aero-industry secrets.

During the early 1940s, with regards to assisted aircrew escape, Swedish designers worked independently and in isolation. Many of their developments paralleled the evolution of ejection seats in Germany at that time.

The early work in Sweden went unnoticed by other countries until the latter stages of the Second World War. From early 1944 and the immediate post-war years many countries follow the same route as Saab in early ejection seat developments. Britain, France and America all viewed the Swedish developments and captured German seats and documentation. France and America showed the most interest in the Swedish work. The American returned to the States with a Saab seat for further investigation. Jimmy Martin considered that developments in Britain were at a stage where the German and Swedish seats offered little more than had already been acheived.

SAAB J21
In April 1941 Saab submitted an unusual pusher-propeller design fighter designated the L-13 which later became known as the J-21. Both designs would be among the first fitted with ejection seats for aircrew safety and, apart from Germany during the same period, no other propeller driven aircraft, until the North American Bronco, would have such systems.

Saab's J-21 had a pusher propeller offering the escaping pilot the prospect of a macabre end. In America, the Vought XP-54 "Swoose Goose" a similar pusher design aircraft had access and egress through the underside of the aircraft. In Germany the Dornier Do-335 "Pfiel" had both a "puller" and a "pusher" propeller. The Do-335 was fitted with a compressed air powered "katapultsitz" and had a system for "blowing-off" the tail propellor unit by means of an explosive charge.

"Pusher-propeller" aircraft were by no means a new concept. In World War I aircraft, such as the Vicker's Gunbus, existed giving the gunner an unrestricted forward field of fire without the need for an interrupter to protect the propeller. Aircrew in World War I weren't expected to "bail-out" and although methods were available they were never employed on the Allied side.

By 1939 experiments were taking place in Sweden to find a consistant safe method of abandoning an aircraft at all speeds and altitudes.

In 1940 initial proposals for escape from the J-21 fighter included ideas of either feathering the rear mounted propeller or "blowing it" away by explosive means, as in the Do-335, to allow the pilot safe escape by conventional bail-out. These were abandoned in favour of an ejection seat. Design proposals and preliminary calculations of the first Swedish Ejection seat date from this period. The first patent for a Swedish ejection seat for the J-21 was granted on 17th October, 1941.

Towards the end of 1941 test ejection seats had been produced and by early 1942 static ejection tests were taking place at Saab's factory grounds at Linköping. Future ejection tests would also be conducted at the company's airfield, flight tests usually taking place at one of the paratroop training grounds at Forsvik, north of Karlsborg and high altitude tests at the RFN base at Västebotten.  Over 140 tests of the seat design were carried out from ground rigs. Test included different angles of ejection, various compressed air pressures and cartridge propellants, accelerations. These included live ground tests.

16 acceleration tests involving volunteers also took place on a cable run. The aim of these tests were to determine if humans could cope with ejection accelerations. No volunteer complained of any discomfort.
The seat was suspended from a trolley device, similar to a cable car, below a pair of 25m. cables at an angle of 25degrees and ran from the ground to the top of a small hill. The seat guns were pressurised and fired. Using either a lead ballasted seat or a human "guinea pig" the maximum accelerations were measured by a mechanical accelerometer. Some tests were filmed.

In developing the cartridge seat static ejection tests took place using a special rig, again using ballast and volunteers. The seat and its occupant were ejected by compressed air and an arrangement of pulleys and cables allowed the seat to be safely "caught" between two vertical poles. Again no volunteer complained of experiencing unpleasant acceleration forces. Similar arrangements for "catching" seats were developed in other countries including America, France and Switzerland during their development and testing of ejection seats.

This method of testing was consistent with the development pattern of escape systems in other countries during and after World War II, including Germany, Britain, France, America and Russia.

The first three air ejection tests were carried out the most likely dates being winter 1941.

A modified Junkers Ju-86K [Saab B3], with electrically operated test equipment installed in the rear, upper gunner cabin and a film camera on one of the wing tips, was used to carry out the tests.

In the first "model test" a large 80mm diameter ball was "ejected" to a height of 4m. with the aircraft travelling at 350km/h. The track of the falling ball was recorded by the wing camera and a chase aircraft.

Full scale tests were carried out on 8th January 1942 when a full sized 80kg. dummy attached to a seat. With the aircraft flying at 280km/h. the seat and dummy were ejected. The seat cleared the aircraft by 4-5m. The successful ejection was witnessed by the pilots in the aircraft and chase plane. No film record exists for this first aerial test of an ejection seat in Sweden as the seat ejection sequence was initiated before the camera crews were ready. History has a habit of repeating itself.
In the first "live" American ejection seat test in August 1946 the very same thing happened. There have also been some unconfirmed reports that the very first German ejection seat tests from the Ju-87 in 1941 were also "missed".

Following the successful aerial ejection further ground tests took place using compressed air.

Originally the seat was designed to use a 2 litre compressed air bottle as the propellant being fed via a valve to the lower end of the tubes but this proved unsatisfactory and performance was poor. The valve sealing proved difficult as the pressures for ejection increased. Larger air bottles with an  increased weight penalty were required. Maintenance and likelihood of damage would prove too great a problem as was demonstrated by experiences in the Luftwaffe.

Following an attack by a British nightfighter Mosquito from 410 Sqn RCAF damage to the ejection seat compressed air system and a loss of pressure forced Unteroffizer Gunther Karl Heinrich Thurow and Gefreiter Neff to crash land their He-219 G9+WH near Handdorf on 3rd February 1945.
Within the same time frame as in Sweden German designers were coming to the conclusion that cartridges would be a better alternative to compressed air.

BALLISTIC CARTRIDGES REPLACE COMPRESSED AIR AS PROPELLANT

AB Bofors developed the NK 490 cartridge based around a slightly modified 25mm shell casing. This was installed between the two tubes and connected to the them by curved pipes.

Static ejection tests were carried out using the same cables and pulley system as for the compressed air tests.

Between 14-16th December 1942 cartridge tests were carried out at AB Nobelkrut, Bofor. Further tests were conducted on 4th and 5th February 1943.  The tests moved to Saab and were conducted from 1st - 10th March 1943. More tests took place at Saab during 5-13th May 1943.

During 1943 tests were being carried out with installation of the seat into the J-21. Trajectory calculations were made for ejections in level flight at varying speeds, pilot weights, propeller clearance, different angles of climb and dive. 35 static ejection tests were made before the seat went on for its verification flight.

The first flight of test aircraft J-21.001 took place on 30th July, 1943 complete with verified ejection seat. The first production aircraft J-21.103 took place in November, 1944.

A verification test of the cartridge ejection seat took place from the rear of a Saab B17 aircraft on 27th February, 1944. An articulated wooden dummy complete with parachute together weighing
100kg. was ejected with the aircraft at 405km/h at 15000m. This time the successful test was caught on film. The seat and the dummy safely parachuted back to earth.

THE MODEL I SEAT

The seat frame consisted of two gun tubes that supported between them, the seat pan, back and headrest and acted as both guides and power source. A lever on the left side of the seat meant that the seat could be adjusted during flight.

The pilot was secured to the seat with adjustable waist straps, wearing and sitting on an O4 type parachute pack, that was not attached to the seat. It contained a manually operated Irvin parachute and an auxilliary parachute. His feet were supported on spring loaded rests on the front of the seat pan.

The seat was fired by means of a handle on the right side of the instrument panel. On ejection the pilot's waist straps were automatically released as the seat passed the rim of the cockpit leaving the pilot to operate his own rip-cord. A mechanically operated guillotine automatically severed the oxygen hose and the radio cord.

In Germany the original Heinkel He-219 ejection seat had a "breaking-point" for such disconnection on ejection. On the night of 27th / 28th September 1943, Hptm. Hans-Dieter Frank, the pilot of He-219 G9+CB ejected with his Bordfunker, Obfw. Erich Gotter after colliding with an Me-110 north west of Celle, due east of Hanover. The Hptm. Frank's radio cord failed to disconnect. His neck was broken. This event led to a seat modification with mechanical guillotine being used to sever the cord.

Later modifictions to the Model I seat included reduced power cartridges to lower acceleration forces on the pilot, shoulder straps and an improved harness which centrally connected the waist and shoulder straps. This harness also incorporated automatic release after ejection. The firing handle was replaced by a leather strap over the left shoulder of the pilot.

In the J-21 the seat had a 92% success rate saving 23 of the 25 ejectees.
The first being when two J-21s collided on 29th July 1946.
[note: Bengt Jarkenstedt's ejection is outlined eslewhere on this website (to be done!!!)]

By 1939 the new company had been awarded a development contract to design a twin-engined bomber, originally called the L-11 and later the Saab 18.

The Saab B18A was a twin engined bomber suitable for dive-bombing and strategic reconnaissance developed in the late 1930's and first flew on 19th June 1942. Originally it had a crew of three. The B18B was primarily a bomber version and the T -18B was for torpedo and mine operations. Delays in the expected torpedos and T-18Bs had 20mm cannon installed in the torpedo bay. Further armaments could be installed including a 57mm cannon.

Twin-engined aircraft with their propellers in close proximity to the crew cockpit meant that crew had to be ensured of a way to safely "eject" them as far away from the airframe as possible. Large tail plane areas and high tails gave crews the added danger of striking the aircraft structure.

Alterations to the B18B came with the development of a "toss" bombsight along with the introduction of rockets as a means of offensive armament. The bomber squadrons now became
attack squadrons.
The crew were reduced to two and in 1949, a retrospective modification to all B18Bs and T-18Bs was the installation of ejection seats for the pilot and navigator / gunner which meant the aircraft being temporarily withdrawn from service.  The modifications to the B18B included making the two arms of the control horn collapsible to ensure the pilot a clear ejection path and reconstruct the windscreen and jettisonable hoods.

The Model 1 seats in the B18B were located slightly further forward and the ejection tubes were shortened. They were fitted with footrests and neck supports. The firing retained the use of a strap over the shoulder.
As with the J21 seat the ejection was begun by leaning back into the seat to ensure correct body
posture, releasing the canopy, pulling the shoulder strap which released the firing mechanism to the cartridge in the back of the seat between the guide tubes. The control column was released and withdrawn to safety by springs by a steel cable which interconnected the column and the seat. A safely lock prevented the firing release mechanism from being activated until allowed to do so by the jettisoned hood to which it was attached by a steel cable. This ensured the pilot did could not eject before the hood was released.  The maximum acceleration of the seat was 20G.
 

3 crew successfully ejected from B18s. One was a successful ejection in 1948 was made with the aircraft inverted. Only minor injuries were ever reported.
There were two ejections were the pilots were killed, one at very low altitude and the other at very high speed with the aircraft diving

The Saab J21-R was the jet fighter version of the propeller -pusher J-21.
The first flight of the J21-R was on 10th March 1947.
One of the important features of the Saab seats retained through all the Saab design was that the parachute pack should be separate from the actual seat system. Even when fitted with integrated  parachute / seat harness the parachute is only automatically armed by a static line device at seat / man separation. The idea being that a pilot abandoning an aircraft without seat ejection would have control of his parachute. The parachute pack, similar to German designs, also contains the emergency oxygen bottle.  This system proved its worth when Civilingenjör Olle Klinker, a test pilot at Saab became the first pilot to "bale-out" from a J-21R jet on 28th March, 1949 when the ejection seat didn't work.

THE MODEL I EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB 210

It flew for the first time in December 1951.

THE MODEL II EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB J29 TUNNAN [THE FLYING BARREL]

The first flight of the J29 was on 11th March 1953. The new jet fighter with its swept back wings required a brand new ejection seat.
The basic seat design retained the twin ejection tube / guide rail system taking its propellant from a charge centrally located. The seat mounting consisted of two cylinders each supported by a piston mounted on the cockpit floor and secured from movement by spring loaded pins. The cylinders were further guided by an upper and lower pair of rollers fixed to the aircraft structure. The upperends of the cylinder were attached to the combustion chamber by curved pipes.

SAAB MODEL IIA EJECTION SEAT

The Model IIA which retained the strap initiation and was used in several of the company's research aircraft. There were in fact two straps that had to be pulled. The left strap was to be pulled by the right hand and vice versa meaning the tha pilot's arms were crossed ensuring correct body posture and less likelihood of the arms striking the aircraft structure. Windblast to the face was to be provided by the wearing of an improved safety visor. Should this method fail or one arm be restricted the introduction of a second method of ejection by the use of an ejection handle mounted on the front of the seat pan between the pilot's legs

SAAB MODEL IIB EJECTION SEAT

The Model IIB as installed in the J29 seat had a pressed aluminium seat bucket mounted on twin ejection gun / guide rails, rearward tilt of 30 degrees to increase G tolerance and reduce frontal area on ejection and it could be raised or lowered by 3.1 inches, leg rests were added and footrests were mounted on spring loaded brackets. A seat survival pack was included. Gone was the strap actuation and fitted into the padded headrest was a face blind similar to the Martin-Baker system.
A quick release shoulder harness was fitted allowing the pilot free movement when the retaining cable was unlocked.
The Model IIA had an automatic harness release operated by 40 ft. static line mounted on the right hand side of the seat. This pulled out the central locking pin of the harness once the seat and pilot were a safe distance away from the aircraft.
The Model IIB had manual harness release.
The Model II also benefitted from work carried out on the Model III seat with many improvements being added including automatic man / seat separation and parachute release mechanism. Automatic oxygen / wireless disconnect was an early option for both seat types.
The parachute was a back-type with a seat incorporating a dinghy.
As with the Model I seat the Model II seat could not be fired without first jetissoning the canopy.
Tests on the seat included aerial tests and ground firings using a 26m rig.
There was a total of 94 ejections made from J29 Tunnans which included 11 out of the seat envelope. 69 pilots were saved giving an in envelope 80% survival rate.

SAAB AND FOLLAND EJECTION SEATS

The seat was lightweight and small and it attracted the attention of the designers of the Folland Gnat. Manufacturing rights for the Model II were purchased by the Folland Company and modifications and tests were carried out to produce the first Folland Lightweight Ejection Seat. It would be to simple to say that the Folland Seat was a modified Saab seat. The whole Folland story requires an in depth article of its own. One is in preparation to go onto this website

THE MODEL III EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB J32 LANSEN [LANCER]

The aircraft was Sweden's first two seater jet fighter and first flew on 3rd November 1952. The stablility of the aircraft made it an ideal test bed for armament trial and one aircraft, J32-502, was converted to become an ejection seat test bed aircraft for the new ejection seats required for the J35 Draken and J37 Viggen.  The seat fitted to the Lansen changed the original Saab idea of twin ejection tubes that doubled as seat guides to a central ejection gun with separate guide rails. The gun was fitted with two explosive charges . one fitted at the top of the gun and the other fired by the hot gases generated by the first charge. This seat was also partly armoured.
Once again the Swedish design for releasing the canopy first to activate the seats was incorporated.
The Lansen canopy was originally designed to release backwards and then rotate on bearings.
The idea was abandoned in favour of through the canopy ejection. Ejecting from the Lansen was a matter of understanding between the pilot and his navigator. The rear seater would eject first followed by the pilot. At this point there was no inter seat connection to sequence the ejections.
The initial harness and parachute system resembled the earlier J29. The seat incorporated both automatic and manual parachute deployment. A parachute release system developed by GQ Parachute Ltd. was used to ensure automatic deployment after the seat / man separation sequence along with a new GQ "shaped" parachute [KFF54]. Normal parachute release mode was 2 seconds after being separated from the seat by an apron that went taught. During high altitude ejections a barostat locked the parachute release until an altitude of 3,000m. At low altitude the release operated after 0.4sec. followed by the parachute deployment. The soft seat pack was replaced by a hard seat case which lessoned the acceleration on the pilot during the initial stages of ejection.
117 ejections were recored from Lansen J32s. Of the 112 inside the seat envelope 93 crew [82%]
were saved.

THE MODEL IV EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB J35 DRAKEN [DRAGON]

There were two basic types of seat for the J35. One was the ballistic seat, the other the rocket seat.

The first flight took place on 25th October 1955. She was fitted with a new ejection seat. The seat had been extensively tested on the ground and in the air from the J32 Lansen test aircraft.

The ballistic seat had a central ejection gun activated by the pulling of a face-blind, similar to the earlier Model III seat and similar to many other ejection seat designs around the world. It was installed into the aircraft at an angle of 30 degrees. It featured an adjustable seat pan allowing for six different positions, a movable headrest, an improved oxygen regulator and a high altitude back-type parachute system and integrated harness developed by GQ in England.  Further safety measures included a dampening device to absorb impact deceleartions should the aircraft crash land complete with pilot and seat.

Considerable changes were made to the seat and canopy jettison. The face blind was removed making the seat pan handle the only firing mechanism and a firing handle to electrically initiate canopy jetison, active leg restraint powered by the movement of the seat. In the two seat Draken the canopy jettison seat firing sequence time delay was increased to allow the larger canopy time to clear, the rear seats ejection tube was reduced in length providing a differential in ejection time to avoid pilot and rear - seater colliding, a similar principal of using different atmospheric pressures was employed in the He-219.

Faced with the similar problems of high speed low-level ejections the Swedish company arrived at the same conclusions as the Americans and the British that the human frame could not tolerate even higher ballistic charges to reach sufficient height to ensure safe parachute deployment. In the early 1960s Saab added a seat rocket motor and a seat stabilising parachute similar to the later Folland seats, allowing for low level ejection at low speed and high speed.
19 ejections were made using the ballistic seat, 18 within the seat envelope saving 14 lives. [72%]
74 ejections were made using the rocket seat, 70 within the seat envelope, saving 69 lives. [93%]

THE MODEL V LIGHTWEIGHT EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB 105
 

The 105 was a replacement training aircraft for the aging Vampire and piston engined trainers. It first flew on 1st July, 1963. It featured side by side ejection seats similar to the J29 Model II. These seats had an electrically operated seat pan allowing continuous in-flight adjustment. They were inclined backwards at 19 degrees and outwards by 2 degrees with through the canopy capability. Modifications were applied to the seats very much as in the case of the J29. Most J32 improvements including the hard seat survival pack were carried out.
There were 11 ejections including 4 outside the envelope. 7 crew were saved. [63% overall but 100% inside the envelope!]

THE MODEL VI EJECTION SEAT AND THE SAAB J37 VIGGEN [THUNDERBOLT]

The Viggen was unique in its day for having foreplanes to act as lift-generators and make possible very low landing speeds. Its first flight was on 8th February, 1967. The aircraft was fitted with a fully automatic rocket-seat, with central ejection gun and moveable seat pan similar to the Draken. The system has eveloved as with all the other Saab seats. The Viggen has a passive arm restraint system to avoid flailing and the latest seat is qualified for a maximum safe ejection speed of 650kt. Further developments at this time of writing include a new parachute system to reduce maintenance costs, and mechanical time delay mechanisms being replaced with electronics.

The trainer versions of the Draken and Viggen both have two rocket seats in tandem. The rear seat is ejected first to avoid rocket burn to the rear occupant. The ejection sequence being controlled by electric circuits switched from the front seat. On ejection the seats are unsymmetrically braked creating a divergent angle during the rocket burn and further separating the seats from each other.

High speed tests were carried out on the rocket sests for the Draken and the Viggen in the United States. In the early 1980s five Saab JA-37 ejection seat tests were conducted on the High Speed Test Track facility at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. The ejection velocities varied from 1,100km/h to 1,300kh/h. and were to test the various systems at very high speed. Included within the tests was the new net arm restraint system. All the tests conducted using anthropomorphic dummies indicated safe pilot escape using both U.S.A.F. and Swedish criteria.
There have been 33 ejections from the J37 including 5 outside the seat envelope. 30 lives have been
saved. [91%]

THE MARTIN-BAKER LEIGHTWEIGHT MK 10 AND THE SAAB JAS 39 GRIPEN [GRIFFIN]

The Gripen would be the first Swedish designed and manufactured aircraft that did not feature a Saab ejection seat. With the new aircraft it was clear that a new seat would be required. The extremely costly development of ejection seats. Several American and British seats that met the requirements set out by the aircraft designers already existed. The Douglas ACES II, Stencel / UPCo S3 and S4, and Martin-Baker Mk 10 and Mk 12 were all considered. The final choice was the Martin-Baker Mk S10LS.

The seat installed in the JAS Gripen differs slightly from the standard Mk 10. It has a strengthened two piece steel ejection gun for high roll rate ejections, improved harness, Swedish leg restraint connections introduced, gas pressure activated drogue gun and time release mechanism for
improved ground crew safety and a Tornado type arm restraint system. In addition to facilitate safe egress though the canopy the 9mm stretched acrylic canopy has a shaped explosive charge activated
by hot pressure gas from the seat ignition system.
In close collaboration with representatives from Saab, the seat with the modifications underwent
thorough testing with in flight tests from the Martin-Baker Meteor test aircraft and zero level, through the canopy and at high speed using the forward fuselage section of a JAS 39 at the Martin-Baker high speed test track.

The success of the seat was suitably demonstrated on 8th August 1993. The Saab JAS 39 Gripen 39-102 crashed into a densley populated suburb of Stockholm while performing an aerial display. News broadcasts around the world reported the remarkable ejection that had been captured on film. Only seven spectators sustained minor injuries and Saab test pilot Lars Rådeström ejected safely suffering a minor back strain from the ejection.

SAAB JAS 39B Gripen Trainer

The unique feature of the JAS 39Bs emergency crew escape system is the introduction of an "air-bag" that inflates momentarily as the rear crew member ejects to protect the pilot from rocket blast and broken perspex from the canopy. In addition a command ejection system based on hot gas pressure will be incorporated along with canopy fracturing systems.

SWEDISH EJECTION SEATS IN OTHER COUNTRIES

During late 1944 and early 1945 with the war drawing to an end delegations from America and France visited Sweden to view their developments. Until this period, Sweden being a neutral country, had kept her developments secret. America had also collected data from Britain and Germany on ejection seats and returned with examples from all three countries.

In the early 1950s Folland were the only company to actively develop and manufacture seats based on the original Model II seat. There were four Marks of Folland seat with a rocket version being proposed. The Folland Midge and Gnat were fitted with Folland seats and the Yugoslavs bought large quantities of the early Folland seats. In India the Ajeet fighter based on the Gnat featured the Folland seat but this was later replaced by a lightweight Martin-Baker seat. There was even a proposal for the fitting of Saab ejection seats into the Gloster Meteor NF11 when Armstrong-Whitworth's were approached by the Swedish Air Force in September 1950.

Sweden exported several types of aircraft to other countries that were equipped with ejection seats but not the manufacturing rights.  The Saab J29 was sold to Austria, the J35 to Denmark and Finland and Austria, the Saab 105 to Austria.


Official Saab figures up to October 1992 gave a total of 375 ejections using Saab ejection seats. 344 of these were considered within the seat envelopes. 307 lives were saved giving a survival rate of 82%.

Sweden and Saab's contributions to assisted aircrew escape and survival equipment have a long a well respected reputation. Every escape by ejection seat is followed by in depth crash investigations. Seats are provide with underwater location beacons to aid recovery. The designers and developers continue to search for the ultimate of 100% survival.
It will be interesting to see futu

Referring to the information within the article shows the following Ejection Listing details are notcomplete by any means. Any information to add to the lisings would be very much appreciated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to the following people for their generous help with
this article.
Bengt Järkenstedt [Swedish AF pilot retd.]; Olle Klinker [former Saab test pilot retd.]; Georg Olsson [Escape System Manager, Saab]; Jan Ahlgren, Åsa Holm, Marie Atkö [and unknown others at Public Relations - Saab Military Aircraft]; Sqn. Ldr. John West RAF retd.; Arthur Harrison [GQ Parachutes]; Ivor Davies [Folland Aircraft]; Brian Miller and Del Holyland [Martin-Baker]; Dee Cragg [U.S.A.F. Holloman AFB]; Dr. Sartorius [Austrian Ministry of Defence]; Heinz-Joachim Hass; Wolfgang Leuthner.